A Light in the Dark
by Kuro de Band Geek
Summary: Dinah gets amnesia and forgets everything. Are some things better left untold?
1. Bad Beginnings

A Light in the Dark  
  
Barbara and Dinah are in the training room. All is silent, except for Barbara's instruction. "Focus, Dinah. Focus," she coached. Dinah was beginning to become restless.  
  
"Why are we doing this anyway?" she asked, "Shouldn't we be working on the kicks and punches and stuff? I've already mastered the whole mental- psychic thingy. Let's move on already!" Barbara sighed. "Dinah," she said sternly, "You are part of a team. A team is supposed to be evenly balanced. Helena's the physical part, I'm the intelligence source, and you're our mentality skill. You have your own abilities that neither of us has, and that's what makes you an essential part of our team. That's why you need to develop your skills as much as possible. We rely on each individual skill to solve any possible situation that might come up."  
  
Dinah starts humming "Star Spangled Banner", much to Barbara's dislike. "Dinah!" Barbara scolded, "This is serious! Now, back to training. I want to see you lift and place this ball on the other side of the room 10 times."  
  
"God, Barbara, since when did you become such a workaholic?" Dinah irritably asked, "I mean, since Wade died-," she stopped when she realized what came out of her mouth, and saw the hurt look on her trainer's face. "Barbara." she said softly, reaching out to comfort her, but the trainer put her hand up to stop her. "Just-," she stuttered, "Just go. Go to Gaby's or something, just go." "Barbara." Dinah repeated, backing out of the room. "Just go!" Barbara yelled.  
  
Alone and scared, Dinah wandered the New Gotham streets with nowhere to go. Gaby was on vacation with her parents. She didn't want to go to No Man's Land at the risk of running into Helena. She became afraid- she'd never been on sweeps alone before. Aimlessly she wandered, soon losing track of sidewalks and streets. It was becoming dark. There was no moonlight to guide her and the streetlights weren't on yet. All she could think about was how much she hurt Barbara and how much Barbara hurt her. She knew she shouldn't have brought up Wade, but Barbara shouldn't have yelled like that and kicked her out. The girl had never heard her yell like that. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn't see the approaching car.  
  
A/N: Like it so far? I know it's short, but I'm working on it! 


	2. Restoration

A Light in the Dark  
  
A couple hours later, Dinah awoke in a hospital bed. Two people were arguing near her; one was a young woman, about 23. The other was older, and in a wheelchair. Who are these people? the teen thought. She had no memory of what happened, where she was, or who she was for that matter. The two women kept arguing softly as Dinah tried to make out what they were saying.  
  
"You kicked her out?!" "I- I don't know, I wasn't thinking." "So, what are we gonna do?" "Hold on, she's coming around." Both women looked at the girl, as if seeing her for the first time. The older woman wheeled over to her. She touched her arm gently and whispered, "Dinah, I'm sorry about what happened. It was all my fault. Please forgive me." A look of fear replaced the curiosity on Dinah's face. She yanked her arm away, and turned to the other side of the bed.  
  
"What's going on?" the other woman asked. "I don't know, Helena," the older responded, "I just don't know." At that time, a nurse came into the room with a grave expression on her face. "Miss Gordon?" she asked, "The doctor made a diagnosis. Dinah has amnesia." The women's faces both shared the same look of worry. "What are we gonna do?" Helena asked, "Is she gonna be okay? Will she ever get her memory back? What's gonna happen to her?!" "Calm down," the nurse responded, "She'll be fine. Just stay with the regular routine. In time, she will eventually return to her normal self." Barbara turned her attention to the now sleeping Dinah, then back to the nurse. "Thank you," she said, "C'mon, Helena. Let's get her back to the clocktower.  
  
Again, Dinah awoke in another strange place. This time, she was inside what appeared to be a giant clocktower. She walked into the kitchen where she met the woman in the wheelchair preparing lunch. She looked up at the girl and smiled. "Good afternoon, Dinah," she said, "Want some lunch?" Dinah nodded. The woman wheeled over to her. "You probably don't remember me," she began, "but I'm Barbara. I adopted you when you were about 16 years old." She watched Dinah slowly say her name. "Barbara." Barbara smiled again. "Yea, that's right. Barbara." She gestured towards Helena who had just come in, "And that's Helena. She's your sister, and your partner." After hearing that, Helena walked over to her and smiled as well. "Hey, kid," she said. All the time, Dinah just sat and stared, as if comprehending every little moment. Finally, she found her voice.  
  
"What am I doing here?" she asked. Barbara looked at Helena, then back at Dinah. "Well," she began, "We. we fight crime. We protect the city from thieves, masterminds." "Crazy women posing as psychiatrists hypnotizing people to try to take over the world." Helena interrupted. They both laughed at the teen's confused gaze. "It's a long story," Barbara said between giggles, "We'll explain later." As the two continued to laugh, Dinah gave a soft chuckle, then a giggle, then a full out laugh until all three of them were literally in tears. Then, Alfred walked in, allowed himself an inner giggle, then once again resumed his dignified position. "Ahem!" he politely cleared his throat, "I believe the luncheon is now being served in the dining room." Gasping for air, Barbara replied, "Hold on, Alfred. We'll be right there."  
  
A/N: I know, GREAT ending for a chapter, isn't it? ( Well, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it! 


	3. The lethal picture

A/N: Thank you SO much for your reviews! It's just the encouragement I needed to keep going at this! I just wanted to thank you all! Now: CHAPTER 3!!  
  
After lunch, Helena found Dinah looking in the picture albums. "Hey!" she called. Dinah looked up, and smiled. "Hey," she replied. Helena walked over to where the girl was sitting and sat next to her. "So," she said, trying to make conversation, I see you've found the albums. Indulged in the pictures and memories, Dinah replied "Yep," without looking up. "Yeah," Helena happily sighed, "We've had a lotta good times here. Look! There's Guy's first birthday party, and oh, there's my high school reunion." She kept pointing out the pictures and relaying each event. Then, Dinah found a picture of her mother. "Who's this? she asked, pointing her out to Helena. A look of horror flashed across the crimefighter's face for a second, then she returned to her usual devil- may- care expression. "Oh, no one," she said quickly, "I'm gonna see if Barbara needs anything." As she left, Dinah sat, transfixed by the woman in the picture. She looked so familiar, yet no name came to mind.  
  
*****************  
  
"Barbara!" Helena called urgently. Startled, Barbara replied, "I'm here, Helena. Is everything alright?" Taking a moment to sit and catch her breath, Helena relayed what just happened. "She knows, Barbara," she finished, "She doesn't remember yet, but she recognizes her. What are we gonna tell her?" The trainer thought quickly, "We can't tell her- it was bad enough for her to witness the death once, but twice- it'd just be unbearable. We have to distract her from that photo. If she asks about it, we'll just say she was a friend of mine from college, or something." Helena stood up to go back to Dinah. "Let's just hope she never finds out."  
  
****************  
  
Still engrossed on the picture, Dinah started examining it more closely. She slid it out of the sleek plastic sleeve and searched it thoroughly, front to back. On the back of the photo, there was some faint writing, but she couldn't quite make it out. She reached for Barbara's magnifying glass, and examined the words, which turned out to be a name and two dates. In shock and horror, Dinah read it: CAROLYN LANCE 1960-2002. Her head swam with memories, flashbacks and pain.  
  
***** (flashback) Carolyn is seen being choked. Hawke is laughing maniacally, until Helena, Reese, and Dinah break in and fight. The ropes are becoming tighter. Dinah and the others finally get the choke collar off Carolyn. She lets out the mighty Canary Cry. With that, the ropes break, and she is free for now. Unfortunately, the Cry reacted with explosive gas, and creates a huge fire! Helena, Reese, Hawke, and Dinah escape, but Carolyn did not. (end flashback) *****  
  
Finally returning to reality, Dinah suddenly broke down in tears. Oblivious at first, Helena comes into the room, but suddenly stops after seeing her partner with her head in her hands sobbing. She too, brushed away a tear, and ran back to Barbara.  
  
A/N: Just for reference, I haven't seen Sins of the Mother for awhile, so some of the information in the flashback may not be totally factual. Just please don't sue me! 


	4. The beginning of the end

From that moment, Dinah changed. No more was she the irresponsible, careless, naïve teenager, but a solemn, troubled adult. For weeks, she didn't speak to anyone. She still lived with Barbara and Helena in the clocktower, but still managed to avoid them pretty well. Finally, one day at breakfast, Barbara breaks the silence. "Dinah," she said sternly, but with a hint of gentleness, "Dinah, talk to me." Dinah looked up at her, then back to her plate. "What's there to talk about?" she muttered.  
"Well, let's see, there's school, the weather, that's always nice.," Barbara retorted, her voice rising.  
"Or maybe, how you lied to me about my own mother, you wanna talk about that?!" Dinah yelled, her own voice rising.  
"We didn't want you to experience the death again. We thought it would be too much for you to handle," the trainer replied, now yelling, "We figured the less you remembered, the better off you'd be."  
"So you lied to me?!" Dinah asked, "Barbara, in life, everyone experiences deaths like this. I could've handled it. When I looked at that picture, it all came as such a shock. If you and Helena told me, I could have had more time to comprehend it; I wouldn't be like this now. Now, I don't even know if I can trust you guys now. I'm too afraid."  
Barbara just sat there, numbed with both disbelief and sorrow. This was the first time she heard Dinah like this; so grown up, and mature. She knew the next thing that comes out of her adopted child's mouth will be something a mother never wants to hear.  
"Barbara," the girl began, "I think I want to quit." 


	5. Bye, bye Dinah

Open- mouthed in shock, Barbara just sat. "Wh- What?" she asked in disbelief. "I wanna quit," Dinah replied. "Facing this made me realize that I want to lead the normal life I never had. This job limits my chances to do that. Any day, any second, I can die, and my life wouldn't matter because it wasn't really my life. It was Dinah, daughter of Black Canary's life. From now on, I just want to be Dinah." Her loving instructor peered over her glasses at her. "Well, Dinah," she said, "You are 18, and that means I have no say in your decisions. They're entirely up to you. But, I can strongly urge you to change your mind. Dinah, we need you; me, Helena, all of New Gotham. You're fighting for metas everywhere, and that's what makes your life worthwhile- your life. You can't change who you are, Dinah. Like it or not, you are a meta human for life, and whether or not you choose to tell the world, or hide it, you are still what you are, and nothing can change that." "I know that, Barbara," the girl replied, solemnly, "But I just want to be as normal as I possibly can for now." As she said this, she started to get up to leave. "I'm gonna miss you, Barbara," she said, casting a backwards glance at her former trainer. "Goodbye." In the midst of the conversation, Helena was staring to the room to comfort her adopted sister, but stopped when she heard the conversation, and listened in. When she heard Dinah say that word, 'Goodbye,' that one word she hated most, she just hung her head in disbelief.  
  
**********************  
  
Upstairs in her room, Dinah started packing to leave. Her mind flooded with memories, and she started having second thoughts about her decision. Her eyes wandered to the photo of her late mother, and she knew it was what she had to do. Sighing heavily, she closed her trunk, and headed towards the door, only to find Helena blocking it. "Helena," she said, "Move." Helena shook her head. "No," she said, "I can't let you do this. I can't let you leave us." "Helena!" Dinah raised her voice, trying to push her out of the way, "I've thought about it, and I know that this is what I have to do. I have to follow my heart." "Yeah, very noble," Helena snapped back, "Leaving your friends just to be normal. Don't you see? You aren't normal. You'll never be normal. So just get over it and do your job!" "No!" Dinah yelled, "I wanna live a normal life, I wanna get out, see the world outside of this place. I wanna meet people, settle down, and I can't do that while I'm punching some guy's teeth out! It just isn't the life I want." "Dinah, you're 18! You're too young to settle down. Face it, the only life you've known is with us. We're all you got now. What's gonna happen when something goes wrong? I'll tell you what- you're gonna run back to us crying your eyes out, expecting us to take you back like nothing ever happened. Well, I got news for you, sister, that's not gonna happen, so if I were you, I'd shut up and get back to work." Just then, Barbara came in with a box labeled: 'Canary Carolyn'. "Dinah," she said, "This is something we probably should've showed you a long time ago. I hope this may change your mind." She set the box down in front of the girl, and left, reluctantly followed by Helena. Always curious, Dinah looked inside. There she found the Black Canary's mask, and clipped newspaper articles of the great things she has done in her career. She examined the newspaper clippings first, examining every headline, every event. One headline read: Not your typical soccer mom: Legendary Black Canary stops yet another crime spree in New Gotham. The girl chuckled weakly, trying to imagine her mother with the big minivan and the cheesy 'I love Soccer' visor. After sifting through more clippings, she moved on to the mask. She examined it thoroughly as the voices of Helena and Barbara echoed in her mind: 'You aren't normal. You'll never be normal.' 'You can't change who you are, Dinah. Whether you choose to hide it, or tell the world is completely up to you.' She picked up the mask, as if to put it on, and hesitated. She murmured, "I'm sorry, Mom," threw it down, and left.  
A/N: Well, that's my story! For those of you shaking your fists in anger, please don't hurt me! I PROMISE a sequel soon!! Hope you liked it!  
  
@~'~,~ BlAcK rOsE ~,~'~@ 


End file.
